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THE TRUE METHOD 


OF 


STUDYING AND TEACHING 

A PAPER 

READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, 

AT ITS ANNUAL SESSION IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, 



On the 6th August, 1867. 


BY AMOS DEAN. 



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EXPLANATORY NOTE. 


The subjects embraced in the following paper, and in the order therein 
stated, have, for many years, occupied the attention of the writer. He 
has long felt convinced that a profound order, a regular plan, a compre- 
hensive system, lay at the foundation of History; and that its discovery 
and development would reward the labors of patient industry and long 
continued research and investigation. He has availed himself of the 
invitation of the Standing Committee of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Education to present the following as what he 
deems the true method of unfolding and developing this order, plan 
and system. 

His object in presenting it at this time has been, in part, to guide the 
studies of those who are arming themselves for the conflicts of the 
present and future by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the past, 
but more especially to direct the attention of thinking men to a 
University Department, in which the methodical, systematic teaching 
of History, as a comprehensive whole, should have all the prominence 
which its vast importance demands. 

It is obvious that the establishment of a State or National University 
has, for some time past, claimed a large share of the attention of the 
leading minds of this state and nation. Efforts for that purpose, thus 
far entirely successful, have been, and are still, making in the city of 
Albany; the movements of several colleges, Brown, Harvard, Yale, 
Union, and, more recently still, Columbia, are being in that direction; 
and lastly, the Regents of the University of this state are taking im- 


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EXPLANATORY NOTE. 


portant action in the matter. Since the preparation of this paper, the 
writer has been happy to find that the plan of a University, as proposed 
by the Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, in his late able report to the 
Regents of the University, embraces a Faculty covering essentially the 
ground here proposed. While this great subject is so universally 
agitated in this country, and is everywhere undergoing such general 
discussion, it is thought that suggestions relative to a department, and 
the method of study and teaching therein, might not be inappropriate. 
The writer has also one further object in view, and that is to state the 
plan or method which, if circumstances shall favor it, he designs to 
pursue in the Department of History of the State University of Iowa. 


THE TRUE METHOD 


OF 

STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


“ History,” says Lord Bolingbroke, “ is philosophy teach- 
ing by examples .” But I apprehend the “ examples” must 
have some higher warrant for their occurrence than 
simply philosophy. I would rather define it to be God 
teaching by examples , for God is, in history alike as in the 
workings of inanimate nature, carrying out his plans and 
purposes through laws which he ordains and enforces. 

The present mode of studying and teaching history 
seems to me far more unsatisfactory than that adopted 
in reference to any other branch of human knowledge. 
It is faulty in at least two important respects : 

First. Very many historical works are far from being 
entirely truthful in all their statements. Independent 
of personal and party biases and predilections, tending 
to pervert the truth of history, many supply by imagi- 
nation what they deem wanting in fact to interest; 
while others gratify the love of the marvelous by 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


relating tales and fictions which may amuse though 
they fail to instruct. 

The second and greatest difficulty lies in the character 
of the facts themselves that are brought down to us 
by the ordinary course of history. What is the great 
burden of its story 1 Changes and revolutions in 
governments — heroic conduct of individuals — plots 
and conspiracies — rebellions, successful and unsuccess- 
ful — wars, with their bloody accompaniments of battles 
and sieges — the assault and the blockade — all acts of 
violence, individual and national — these, and such like 
are mainly the subjects that fill up its record. It 
rarely condescends to detail the industrial pursuits of 
a people ; to give their religious beliefs and forms of 
worship ; to exhibit their government and jurisprudence ; 
or to present their manners and customs, their philoso- 
phy or their arts. All these are less striking in their 
character ; less marked in their attributes ; less palpa- 
ble in their effects ; and furnish less food for the 
marvelous in our nature. 

The great difficulty seems to be, that the out-goings 
of human nature, in history, are studied more in their 
wonder-workings than in their ordinary quiet exhibi- 
tions; more in their abnormal conditions than in their 
normal state. It is much the same as studying the 
river in its cataracts ; the ocean in its storms ; the wind 
in its tornadoes; the functions of the human organs in 
a raging fever ; the muscles in their spasms ; or geology 
in its rocky upheavals. The river has its quiet flow 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


7 


as well as its cataracts; the ocean its calm as well as 
its storms; the wind its soft breathings as well as its 
tornadoes; the human organs their harmony of function 
as well as febrile excitement ; the muscles their natural 
contractions as well as spasms; and geology its slow 
depositions of strata as well as violent upheavals. 

I understand history to be a record of human pro- 
gress, and I would study and teach it: 

1. In the evidences upon which its revelations rest. 

2. In certain great principles that lie at the founda- 
tion of all historical development. 

First. The revelations of history rest mainly upon 
three sources of evidence, the monument, the man, the 
written record. In passing around the head of the 
Mediterranean sea we find ourselves successively in 
the primitive homes of each one of these sources. 
Egypt gives us the monument, Arabia the man, and 
Phoenicia the written record. 

Egypt is peculiarly the land of the monument. The 
pyramid there towers aloft in its solemn grandeur, the 
temple presents its forest of columns, the palace its 
massive architecture, and the catacomb speaks after its 
silence of centuries. What high promptings must have 
stirred the minds of those primitive fathers of human 
industry and art to lead them to the performance of 
those gigantic labors that have enabled the world in its 
infancy to speak to the world in its maturity. 


THE TRUE METHOD OF 


But the Nilotic valley is not alone the home of the 
monument. That elder civilization that once held 
dominion on the banks of the Euphrates, the Tigris, 
the Choaspes and the Araxes, is now being proclaimed 
to us through the monuments of Babylon, of Nineveh, 
of Susa and Persepolis. These lead us towards the 
orient. But in reversing our course and traveling 
towards the Occident, we encounter in Greece and 
Italy the old ruins of Ly cosura, of Tiryns, of Norba, 
and of many other cities ; the remains of that cyclo- 
pian architecture that marks the pathway of the 
Pelasgi. 

Nor should we here be unmindful of that ancient 
race, who may be traced, by a line of ramparts and 
tumuli, through the passes of the Caucasus into Sibe- 
ria ; and along its southern mountains from the Tobol 
to the Yenisei and the steppes of the middle regions 
of the Lena, by ruins of towns and tumuli, sepulchres, 
vessels, diadems, weapons, trophies, coins of gold, 
silver and copper ; across Behring’s Straits and down 
the great valley of the Mississippi, even as far as 
Mexico and Peru ; scattering, all along, their mounds, 
ramparts, tumuli and pyramids, thus almost literally 
girdling the globe with their mural monuments. 

In passing from Egypt into Arabia, we find ourselves 
also, in one sense, in a land of monuments, but its 
monuments are men. Man is there monumental, be- 
cause he is unchanged. The Bedouin of the Desert 
and the rocky Arabia possesses the same general fea- 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 9 

tures, traits of character, modes of life and civilization, 
that were in ancient times possessed by the immediate 
decendants of Ishmael. The Assyrian, Babylonian 
and Persian civilizations have traveled by him on their 
journey westward ; while the Egyptian, Hebrew, 
Phoenician, Grecian and Roman have, for ages, 
hovered around him; and yet he has remained the 
same. The manners, customs, forms of intercourse, 
social habits and modes of life that belonged to the 
early patriarchs are yet to be seen impressed upon 
the living page of Arabian being. Man has there no 
institutions, but he is himself an institution. He has 
no history, but he is himself a record. 

In passing into Phoenicia we find the home of the 
written record — the alphabetic character — without 
which man could be little more than the mere creature 
of the present. 

Second. The great principles that lie at the founda- 
tion of all historical development. What are they? 
They are all those included, respectively, in what I 
term the six elements of humanity. These are: 1. 
Industry; 2. Religion; 3. Government; 4. Society; 
5. Philosophy ; and, 6. Art. These are so many vast 
organizing forces, that, together, embrace and exhaust 
all there is of human power, energy and activity ; no 
matter whether it feels or thinks in the mind, or thrills 
in the nerve, or is developed in the muscle. 

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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


Each one of these elements has its own proper 
foundation, its own embodiment and culminating 
point. 

Industry is founded upon the useful. It is embodied 
in the various industrial pursuits of a people. It cul- 
minates in the science of political economy. Its des- 
tiny is to satisfy mans physical wants. 

Religion is founded upon the holy and divine. It is 
embodied in all the various forms of worship. It 
culminates in theology. Its destiny is to satisfy the 
wants of the soul. 

Government is founded upon \he>just. It is embodied 
in the different governmental forms and systems of 
jurisprudence. It culminates in the state. It results 
in the enforcement of order. 

Society is founded upon the agreeable. It is embodied 
in the manners and customs of a people. It culminates 
in the principles of politeness. Its mission is to gratify 
the social instinct. 

Philosophy is based upon the true in itself. Its 
embodiment is in the people’s thought and systems of 
philosophy. It culminates in the pure intellect. 

Art is founded upon the beautiful and sublime. It is 
embodied in thought realized in some form of beauty 
and sublimity. It culminates in the ideal. 

These elements are to be considered: 

1. In their separation from each other. 

2. In their development. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


11 


It is only in the separate, distinct and uncombined 
action of each one of these elements that we can expect 
to witness the gradual development of its intrinsic 
perfections. To accomplish this separation and devel- 
opment requires the exercise of every active principle 
of our nature. 

The first great epoch in the history of man exhibits 
these elements in a state of combination. The histori- 
cal drama opens in Asia. There we behold the infancy 
of man; and there that infancy still continues. All 
the elements are there enveloped in each other, or so 
intimately blended together as to preclude the action 
of each without rendering necessary that of all. 

This envelopment, or intimate blending of the ele- 
ments, is attested by all the important phenomena that 
have been observed in Asia ; excluding, however, from 
that term, the regions more immediately bordering 
upon the Caspian, Black and Mediterranean seas, 
which, in their physical character, are more strictly 
European than Asiatic. 

The specimens of art exhibited in Asia are so indefi- 
nite in outline, so general in character, so deficient in 
just proportion, as to indicate a still indissoluble union 
between the arts and their associate elements ; witness, 
for instance, the strange, uncouth and gigantic figures 
that are to be found in the rock temples of Elephanta 
and Ellora in India. 

The dictates of the religion, the maxims of the 
despotic government, the precepts of the morality, 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


the spirit of society trameled by caste, the deductions 
of the philosophy of the east, equally with the speci- 
mens of art, are all in strict unison with each other, 
and exclude the idea that there is between them any 
line of separation. 

This state of envelopment or intimate union seems, 
therefore, to be the condition under which the existence 
of man is given in Asia. This condition has stamped 
one peculiar feature upon this primitive epoch in our 
history, and that is, mental inaction, profound repose, 
a destitution of well directed physical effort. 

To these the local peculiarities of Asia strongly con- 
duce. Its centre is one immense continuous plateau 
of elevated land. The intense heat at the south tends 
to divest the human frame of its energy and the men- 
tal and moral fabric of its power. 

The events brought down to us by history have 
mostly transpired within the temperate zones. In Asia 
there is no temperate zone. The regions of fire and 
frost there border upon each other. At the foot of the 
Himaleh you are scorched by a torrid sun. Ascend 
their steep acclivities, and you stand on the immense 
plateau of Central Asia, directly within the sphere and 
influence of the northern polar sanctuaries. 

Many of the institutions of Asia, particularly of the 
southern part, come in aid of these local peculiarities. 
The government is, in the extremest degree, despotic ; 
fettering body, mind and soul. Society has distributed 
mankind into castes, and thus transformed the entire 
social fabric into a bed of Procrustes. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 13 

The religion and morality of Southern Asia, more 
particularly of India, both lead to the same general 
inaction. What is its religion ? A deformed theology, 
absorbing everything into itself; allowing man no 
part to perform but that of a mere machine, and leav- 
ing it indifferent in the great system of things whether 
even that part be or be not performed by him. 

What is its morality'? That, also, inspires repose. 
It teaches man if action be necessary, to act as though 
he acted not ; to act with a profound indifference to 
all its results : that, whether he acted or not, the eter- 
nal principle that creates, and modifies, and renews, 
and sustains all things, would be still the same. 

Under these combined influences, man, in Asia, has 
ever remained the same. We have seen him exhibit- 
ing no striking evidences of mental or moral advance- 
ment ; bequeathing us no important discoveries in 
science or art ; handing down to us no trophies of his 
victories over the elements of nature. Exclusive of 
what foreign agency has effected, when have we ever 
witnessed an alteration in the manners, customs, laws 
or institutions of Southern, Eastern or Central Asia ? 
The sun that has gladdened this day has risen upon 
the same, with few or no modifications, that were 
dawned upon by the sun of Zoroaster. 

Centuries have there come and gone and left no 
impress. Let foreign influence and agency cease to 
operate and they never will leave any. As soon may 
we expect to see the Egyptian mummy bursting the 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


cerements of its sepulchre and displaying anew the 
energies of a life long lost, as to witness the Asiatic 
competing with the European or American in the act- 
ings and doings of this world. 

Industry, Religion, Government, Society, Philosophy 
and Art there form one mingled mass. No attempt at 
separation — no effort at development, except in com- 
bination. We see everywhere exhibited the same dull, 
dead uniformity ; the same Sahara of the mental and 
moral world. 

In this primitive epoch we are led to contemplate 
one great exhibition of human nature. We see it pre- 
senting one strong, peculiar characteristic — that of 
inaction — arising from the envelopment or intimate 
commingling of all its elements. 

Let us now mark their successive separation. All 
rational existence is given subject to one condition, to 
the operation of one uniform law — the law of pro- 
gression. The man must walk forth from the boy; 
the civilized from the savage. The man advances 
by a successive separation and development of his 
powers; humanity, by a successive separation and 
development of her elements. 

In the opening of a new epoch, to be influenced by 
a new spirit, we are to view man under a different 
aspect. We are to proceed from inertia to action; 
from where man was nothing to where he is every- 
thing; from despotism to democracy; from union to 
separation; from envelopment to development; from 
Asia to Greece. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


15 


This new epoch required a new theatre of action. 
It found one in the mildness of a Grecian sky ; in the 
balm of a Grecian atmosphere; in the variegated 
beauties of a Grecian landscape; in the diversified 
qualities of a Grecian soil. The mountain, the stream, 
the bay, the harbor, unproductive Attica and fruitful 
Messenia, all furnished motives for action. Man did 
act, and thus became acquainted with his own powers 
and the extraordinary faculties with which God had 
endowed him. Here, for the first time, the important 
secret was discovered, that, in the inventory of the 
universe, man forms an item of value. The high esti- 
mation in which he here held himself is inferable from 
the fact that he has invested his very gods with human 
attributes. He has transferred his own nature to his 
own heavens, and admired, and loved, and feared its 
display in the wisdom of his Pallas ; in the loves of 
his Venus; in the valor of his Mars; in the thunders 
of his Jupiter. 

The spirit actuating the movements of the Greek 
and Roman was essentially the same, so that both 
really form but one epoch. In the government of Rome 
we perceive more clearly developed the aristocratic 
feature. To that undoubtedly is owing the greater 
permanence of its institutions. 

In Greece and Rome human elements strongly 
tended to separation and development. Industry, Reli- 
gion, Government, Society, Philosophy and Art no 
longer form, as they did in Asia, one commingled 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


mass. Society, Philosophy and Art here achieve their 
enfranchisement. 

The first, escaped from the dominion of caste, asserts 
its own prerogatives. It claims and exercises the right 
of yielding obedience to its own laws, and of being 
governed upon its own principles. It annexes to its 
decrees its own sanction, and visits its members with 
its own joyous approval, or lays upon them the weight 
of a blasted name. 

The enfranchisement of Philosophy was still more 
important. The very point of separation is the centre 
of a deep feeling, of an intense interest. That point 
was sealed with the blood of a Socrates. In him 
Philosophy first awoke to a knowledge and com- 
prehension of itself. It afterwards investigated earth 
and its productions in the researches of its Aristotle. 
It ascended to the source of things in the splendid 
idealism of its Plato. 

Art, liberated from its fetters, and encouraged in its 
efforts, here brings forth its choicest products. This 
is, in fact, the crowning element of Grecian civilization. 
Its charm has never vanished from the world. Its 
spell has never been broken. It has aided in sustain- 
ing civilization in its most fearful extremity; and in 
every age and clime, where it has become known, it 
has awoke in the human mind a sense of the beautiful, 
and kindled in the human soul a love of the ideal. 
To the eye it has presented its forms of peerless beauty 
as they glow on the canvass of Apelles, or stand forth 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


17 


in the marble of Phidias; while on the ear has fallen 
its full diapason, mingling the song of Sophocles and 
Euripides with the thunder tones of Demosthenes. 

The remaining elements, Industry, Government and 
Religion, were still intimately blended together. A 
successive separation was necessary, for the purpose of 
allowing each an opportunity of being developed, or 
carried out into all its possible applications. 

Of these yet enveloped elements that of Government, 
or the State, was predominant. It was the central 
element of the Greek and Roman movement. Around 
this, as a nucleus, gathered all the others. To strengthen 
the patriotic love of country, Industry lent its applica- 
tion; Religion its inspiration; Society its warm appro- 
vals ; Philosophy its deductions ; and Art its glowing 
canvass and chiseled monument. 

The Greek formed a part of his state. Its acts were, 
therefore, to some extent, his acts. To him that state 
was the world. To it belonged the dawn of his infancy, 
the bloom of his youth, the vigor of his manhood, the 
decay of his age. Had he affections 1 that was their 
centre. Had he powers of action 1 that furnished mo- 
tives for their exercise. To him it embodied all that 
was beautiful, all that was interesting, all that was 
lovely, all that was worth living for, all that was worth 
dying for. Beneath him was the Grecian soil ; around 
him were Grecian monuments ; above him the abodes 
of Grecian gods. 

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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


Individual worth, during this epoch, is estimated from 
the extent of individual sacrifice. The nation is the 
actor. The wave of Salamis ; the Straits of Thermo- 
pylae ; the plain of Marathon ; the field of Cannae ; 
Carthage in ashes ; a demolished empire ; a subjugated 
world, attest the energy of its action. 

The existence of the individual is here merged in that 
of his nation. It is that that inscribes its achievements 
in living lines on this page of the history of our race ; 
investing this epoch with a nationality, rather than an 
individuality of character ; rendering it resplendent 
from the display of national glory, imposing from the 
exhibition of national power. 

In central, northern and western Europe we are to 
find that portion of our world’s surface devoted to a 
new epoch, characterized by the movement of a new 
spirit. This region of country, in its physical aspects, 
its mountain, valley, river and ocean scenery ; and in 
those arrangements which facilitate intercourse and 
naturally lead to commercial exchanges, bears nearly 
the same relation to the eastern continent that Greece 
does to Europe. 

In the preceding epoch we had seen Society, Philoso- 
phy and Art separated from the other elements, and, to 
a very considerable extent, developed by the Greek 
and Roman spirit. We had seen Industry, Government, 
and Religion still bound together by the ties of a strong, 
and seemingly indissoluble union. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


19 


In the epoch to which we have now arrived, we are 
to witness the efforts of Industry in effecting its separa- 
tion from the remaining primary elements, and its 
consequent development, leaving only Government and 
Religion in a state of combination. This effort of 
Industry in effecting its enfranchisement brings more 
strongly into view the powers and energies of man as 
an individual, and from their freedom and vigor in 
action arises the distinctive spirit of this epoch. 

This truth is deeply engraven on every page of 
European history. It is told in the insubordination of 
its earlier periods ; in the anarchy of the middle ages ; 
in the necessity that originated the feudal system ; even 
in the very essentials of that system itself; in the 
curious institution of chivalry ; in that wide spread 
movement, the crusades ; in the origin and triumphant 
success, during the middle ages, of numerous free 
commercial cities; and finally in the creation of the 
middle class, the third estate, the commons, whose voice 
has been heard with varying power in the Diets of 
Germany, the Cortes of Spain, the States-General of 
France, and the Parliament of England; whose terrible 
energies, roused into fearful activity, have more than 
once surrounded Italy, Germany and France with all 
the horrors of revolution, while in the British Isles, 
having attained their political supremacy, they are 
swaying the sceptre of universal empire under the 
guaranties of the British constitution. True, this spirit 
has been both warlike and peaceful; at one time appeal- 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


ing to the sword as the sovereign arbiter of individual 
right ; at another, pursuing the even tenor of its way 
under the quiet sanction of law. It was nevertheless 
the same spirit still. Its achievements in all the depart- 
ments of industry, as well as in philosophy and in art, are 
numerous and important. The inventions, the dis- 
coveries of modern times, all stand its debtors. It has 
pervaded space, sought an acquaintance with other orbs, 
followed the trackless course of the comet in its wan- 
derings, and brought back intelligence from the very 
outposts of creation. In the sciences that instruct, in the 
arts that refine, it is conspicuous. It has demanded of 
the material world the elements that compose it ; the 
manner of their combination, the mode of their action. 
It has sought a familiar acquaintance with the laws of 
life, the subtleties of organization, the main facts of 
existence. It has penetrated the deepest recesses of 
mind, investigated its powers, classified its faculties, 
and explained their modes of operation. It has been 
active in agricultural pursuits, in the mechanic arts and 
inventions, in the direction of human industry into 
every possible available channel. It has instituted 
commercial relations, and connected together the human 
family by the mutual ties of a common intercourse. 
It has acquired a mastery over physical nature, and 
compelled the very elements to labor for its benefit. 
It has ascended to the source of things, inquired into 
the modifications and reasons of existence, and investi- 
gated God’s moral government of the world. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


21 


The grand result flowing from the spirit of this 
epoch is told in the fact of individual advancement. 
The science of political economy originated from the 
activity of this spirit. That science was unknown to 
the Greeks and Romans. They never dreamed of 
dividing themselves into producing, distributing and 
consuming classes. Indeed they could not, for they 
all formed the consuming class. Their labor was per- 
formed by slaves, and hence w r as degraded, and incapa- 
ble of rising to the dignity of a science. It was left 
to this epoch to develop the individual spirit in all 
the various departments of industry. To facilitate its 
operations, the numerous and diversified objects of 
individual pursuit have been subdivided into their 
distinct and appropriate classes. The division of labor 
has been regarded as the true barometer, indicating, 
with unerring certainty, the degree towards perfection 
to which every social system has advanced. This 
extreme division has resulted in giving, or tending to 
give, to every person employment; in presenting to 
every one a choice of employment ; in extending the 
comforts and conveniences of life to the greatest possi- 
ble number ; in producing a mutual intercourse between 
man and man ; in rendering all the parts of society 
reciprocally dependent on each other, thus consolida- 
ting the whole by the strongest of earthly bonds — the 
bond of interest. 

But notwithstanding the triumphs of Industry during 
this epoch ; notwithstanding the proud trophies it has 


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handed down to us as the fruits of its herculean efforts, 
it had not yet achieved its complete enfranchisement 
from its previously enveloped condition. Its union 
with Government was still too clearly perceptible in 
the adoption of restrictive systems by most of the Euro- 
pean powers, thus limiting its beneficial results, by 
restraining its freedom of action. Industry can only 
find its best possible distribution, and its greatest quan- 
tity of encouragement, when all the markets of the 
world are freely open to its products. 

Humanity, during this and the previous epoch, had 
attained much, but not all. She had not yet reached 
her acme. Her highest point of attainment, her last 
separation, yet lay in another hemisphere. 

We had seen a successive separation and gradual 
development of human elements. Society, Philosophy, 
Art and Industry, except one remaining point of union, 
had successively achieved their enfranchisement, and 
inscribed, in enduring characters, on the historic page, 
the results of their progressive development. We were 
yet to see Industry completely disenthralled. We were 
yet to see the only remaining separation, that of Religion 
from Government. 

We had seen a lifeless inertia characterizing the first 
epoch of our history; a spirit of national movement 
pervading the second; and individual enterprise and 
activity, restrained, however, by governmental inter- 
ference, enlivening the third. We were yet to see 
carried more extensively into practical operation, the 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


23 


important doctrine that this world was made for indi- 
viduals, not for nations. We were yet to see the great 
truth universally acknowledged and received, that all 
the possible developments of human nature in Industry, 
in Religion, in Government, in Society, in Philosophy 
and in Art, are far better made in accordance with the 
laws enacted by its Author, than under those imposed 
by governmental or any other agency. 

A new portion of our earth was required for this 
last separation, and for the further progressive develop- 
ment of human elements. In finding it, humanity, to 
be consistent with her former movements, must travel 
westward. She did so, and found a new hemisphere 
awaiting her coming. 

I shall not describe the physical adaptations of the 
New World to the highest developments of history. 
Its towering mountains, its spreading lakes, its noble 
rivers, its waving forests and its matchless prairies 
seem to have been kept in reserve, to preside in all 
their virgin beauty over the final separation of human 
elements, and to open up in exhaustless treasures to 
their ever onward and unceasing development. 

We are here called upon to witness the separation 
of the last elements that still remained in a state of 
combination. Government and Religion had continued 
bound together during all the three previous epochs. 
The throne and the altar had been inseparable com- 
panions. So very intimate had been their union, both 
in fact and in idea, that when in 1789 the people of 


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THE TRUE METHOD OF 


France overturned the throne, they also, at the same 
time, overthrew the altar ; not comprehending how it 
was possible for the one to exist separate from the 
other. And Napoleon, when he reestablished the one, 
restored also the other. 

Here was sundered the bond of their union. Gov- 
ernment was called upon to account to man ; man 
only recognized his accountability to his God. The 
last lingering tie that connects Industry with Govern- 
ment is also being gradually sundered in the slow but 
progressive rejection of the restrictive system. 

Well might humanity hold a jubilee upon the final 
separation of her elements. Well might she pause upon 
upon this proud pinnacle of her attainment, this elevated 
Himaleh of her world, and examine the successive 
steps of her progress hither. The world had been the 
theatre of her action; time the chronicler of her acts; 
nations and individuals her actors. She had traveled 
over the fallen column; the mouldering monument; 
the sepulchral city; the ruined state; the demolished 
kingdom; the dismembered empire. At her bidding 
the nation had appeared upon her theatre; performed 
its part in developing the grand plot in her drama; 
retired behind the scene. It disappeared when it had 
nothing more to perform ; when its mission was accom- 
plished; when the condition was complied with under 
which its existence had been permitted. Every impor- 
tant step in her advancement had required a sacrifice. 
Greece and Rome had retired to give place to the 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 25 

modern European movement. Nations had disap- 
peared to make room for the race. All had been 
losers except herself. Her progress had been onward 
still, whether she encountered society or solitude, the 
city’s hum or the empire’s grave. 

I have thus asked your attention, somewhat in detail, 
to the successive separation of these elements. The 
object has been both to obtain a more perfect acquaint- 
ance with the elements themselves, and also to show 
that their separation from each other has formed a part 
of the order of Providence. It is, however, their devel- 
opment that is to task the pen of the philosophical 
historian; and in reference to this, I shall only ask 
your indulgence in a few additional remarks. 

There are two modes in which it is possible to seek 
this development. These are in no respect contradic- 
tory to each other. Indeed, they are entirely consistent, 
and may furnish each to the other mutual aid and sup- 
port. And yet they differ essentially in the stand-points 
from which the investigations are pursued; in the 
character of mind fitted for their successful prosecu- 
tion; in many of the subjects themselves that come 
under discussion, and in the manner in which they all 
are introduced and unfolded. 

By the one mode, the different elements themselves 
are taken up in succession as substantive matters of 
investigation. They are each considered in reference 
to the wants they respectively supply; to the founda- 
tions upon which- they rest ; to their several embodi- 
4 


26 


THE TRUE METHOD OF 


ments and culminating points. The element of Indus- 
try, for instance, would be considered in reference to 
its supply of physical wants ; to the idea upon which 
it reposes — that of the useful; to all the possible 
branches of industry which men are capable of pursu- 
ing ; to the natural order of succession in which these 
branches should follow each other; to the relations 
which they respectively bear to each other; to the 
physical conditions of the country in which they are 
carried on; to the physical powers and energies of 
those who embark in their prosecution, and to the 
method, instruments and various aids by which they 
are severally conducted. And so, generally, in regard 
to the other elements. This I would style the Ger- 
manic method, as it is in harmony with the general 
character of the German mind. 

By the other mode, the different nations or peoples 
who have furnished either, or all, the historical eviden- 
ces to which I have referred, are taken up in succession, 
and the investigation is carefully gone into to ascertain 
how far, and in what respects, each has developed the 
different elements. This may rest satisfied with a less 
adventurous mind than the other, and is more Anglo- 
Saxonish in its character. 

If inquired of, therefore, how I would study or teach 
history, I would return, for answer, that I should 
endeavor : 

1. To settle clearly how many, and what, are the 
great elements of humanity, insisting that they should, 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 27 

all together, be exhaustive, giving employment, in their 
separation and development, to every possible human 
power and energy. 

2. To inquire into their successive separation from 
each other — the great historical epochs to which this 
separation has given birth ; the characteristic features 
of each epoch, and the theatre, or region of the globe, 
to which the events that compose it have been chiefly 
limited. 

3. I would take up and exhibit the two great divi- 
sions of men, the nomadic or wandering, and the set- 
tled or civilized ; giving, as far as known, the history 
of the former, but with the view, more particularly, 
of ascertaining how their action and influence have 
affected the latter. 

4. So far, at least, as regards the Iranian and Semitic 
races, as contradistinguished from the Turanian, I 
would give the results arrived at by ethnology ; as I 
feel entirely convinced that national development can 
never be fully unfolded until the elements, the races 
that originally composed the nation, are thoroughly 
investigated and understood. 

5. Leaving the extreme orient, where the elements 
have always existed in a state of envelopment, I would 
take up that ancient people, or, more properly perhaps, 
those peoples, composing the old Iranian empire, inclu- 
ding what is more generally known under the Assyrian, 
Babylonian and Persian empires. Not that I regard 
these as identical in character, yet as each successively 


28 


THE TRUE METHOD OF 


held dominion over substantially the same territory, 
it may be very well to consider them together. In 
considering these, and the others to which I shall sub- 
sequently allude, I would 

1. Invoke physical geography, so far as to get a 
clear idea of the general principles that have presided 
over the formation of the country ; with the view more 
especially of determining to what character of mind, 
and kinds of industry, its physical arrangements are 
adapted. 

2. I would study the nation or nations that have 
here flourished ; limiting all inquiries, however, to acts 
done in a sovereign capacity. Such would be its nego- 
tiations, treaties, wars, and other national acts ; including, 
also, a brief reference to its representative men. The 
object to be kept constantly in view is not, to give a 
full narrative of events, but rather to state the facts out 
of which the events have issued, thus showing the 
relations either of causation or of succession existing 
between them. In this manner, we should endeavor 
to trace the origin of historical events, the frequently 
hidden causes of those results that are more obvious 
and easily understood. The principle here assumed is 
the same as that lying at the foundation of international 
law, viz., that the state or nation is a moral person, and 
its acts moral acts, whatever be the political machinery 
tlirough which its sovereignty is developed. The his- 
tory to which we should here confine ourselves would, 
be in the nature of a personal history, somewhat analo- 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


29 


gous to that of individuals. In this manner, I think, 
we should come better to understand the nation in its 
origin, youth, manhood, old age and death. 

3. What is by far the most difficult task of all, I 
would inquire as to what has been the kind, character, 
direction, extent and amount of development of these 
peoples in the six elements of humanity : 

1. In what particular channels has their industry 
been directed ; what have been their principal indus- 
trial pursuits ; what the order of their succession, and 
their relations with each other. 

2. What have been their religious beliefs ; what the 
deities worshiped ; what the forms of worship ; what 
the instruments through which it was performed, and 
the influence of their religious faith upon the character 
of the people. 

3. What has been the form of government ; what 
the distribution of political forces; what the relation 
between these forces, the checks, if any, established; 
the way and manner in which they have shaped them- 
selves in action ; the general system of law under which 
the operations of society have been carried on. 

4. What has been the state of society, the manners and 
customs of the people ; the sports in which their grave 
or gladsome spirit has indulged ; the forms of social 
intercourse ; the rites and ceremonies that have presided 
over marriage, death and burial ; the main characteris- 
tics of that ceaseless life ebullition caused by the con- 
stant promptings of the social instinct. 


30 


THE TRUE METHOD OF 


5. What has been the nation’s thought, its philoso- 
phy ; who have been its great thinkers ; how, wherein, 
in what direction, to what extent, have they developed 
the pure reason; what have been their systems of 
philosophy, what the succession of those systems ; 
what the effect produced by them upon the nation’s 
character. 

6. What has been the nation’s art ; wherein has its 
thought been realized in some form of beauty or sub- 
limity; how spread upon canvass, how chiseled in 
marble, how designed in architecture ; how has it melted 
in music, glowed in poetry, fascinated in eloquence ; 
how has it mimicked life upon the stage, and marshaled 
armies upon the battle-field; how, in fine, developed 
itself in that infinitude of artistic creations that tend to 
assimilate man to God and earth to Paradise. 

By faithfully gathering up and presenting all that 
can be collected from the evidences upon which the 
truth of history rests, in relation to the developments of 
the people in these six elements of humanity, we 
certainly possess ourselves of all that went to constitute 
the life of that people. And if sufficient were obtain- 
able, we could reproduce them and their institutions 
in all their primitive freshness, and look upon them 
now as if we were one of their own contemporaries. 

I would follow out the same course in relation to 
Egypt, to Arabia, to Palestine, to Phoenicia, and then 
successively to Greece, Rome, Modem Europe, and 
Anglo-Saxon America. 


STUDYING AND TEACHING HISTORY. 


31 


Such a course, fully and faithfully carried out, would 
result in presenting a record of man and his institutions, 
his acts and his thoughts, in giving a history of his 
civilization in both its aspects ; the one regarding the 
interior development of the individual mind, and the 
other the progress of society, the advance of man, the 
full and complete development of the human mind. 
The past would once more live not alone in its deeds, 
but also in its thoughts and institutions. We could 
satisfactorily ascertain what were the contributions 
furnished to civilization by each nation and people and 
race. We could, in reference to human attainment, 
define with greater precision the empires of the certain, 
the probable, the possible. We should present kinds 
and varieties of knowledge, fitted for all stations, con- 
ditions and occupations in life. We should furnish 
materials for solving profound problems in morals, in 
metaphysics, in religion, in government, in all the social 
relations. We should draw systematically, from the 
great storehouse of the past, those lessons that would 
furnish to the present its wisdom, to the future its 
prophecy. We should familiarize the mind with the 
great fact of human progress in all the possible 
developments of which man’s varied nature is suscep- 
tible. We should lift history from the mere narrative 
of events, often without cause or consequence, into the 
region of ideas, the domain of significances. We 
should surround it with all that can captivate, enliven, 
illustrate. We should evolve from it, in systematic 


32 


THE TRUE METHOD, ETC. 


order, all that God has implanted in man, whether 
physical, intellectual, aesthetic, moral or spiritual. We 
should bring it within the empire of cause and effect, 
and thus place it in the same category with physics 
and morals. Thus elevated and ennobled, we should 
find it as impossible to banish God from history, as we 
should from creation or the plan of redemption. 








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